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Jimmy Files Habeas Corpus Appeal, Complaint Against Kaminsky

STAR PROSECUTION WITNESS AGAINST JAMES ROSEMOND RECEIVED SUBSTANTIAL BENEFITS TO TESTIFY

Rosemond Files Complaint Against Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Kaminsky For Favors Given to Lead Witness

Ineffective Counsel and Juror Misconduct Also Cited in Habeas Corpus Appeal For a New Trial

Henry ‘Black’ Butler, Todd Kaminsky

(Brooklyn, New York, April 14, 2016) — In a Habeas Corpus request for a new trial, filed under seal on March 10, 2016, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (21 U.S.C 2255), James Rosemond, who is serving seven life sentences as a “drug kingpin,” has asked for a new trial based in part on the fact that the government’s star prosecution witness, Henry Butler, received substantial benefits for his testimony. It is unequivocal that any benefits received or promised to a witness for his or her testimony must be revealed to the court.

Rosemond, a hip-hop impresario and founder of Czar Entertainment, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 2013 based on testimony from Butler. Although Butler, from Los Angeles, was allegedly a major supplier of drugs obtained through the Mexican cartels, he was able to get out from under his charges by testifying against Rosemond.

Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Kaminsky, who is running for the seat of disgraced former State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skeolos, was the lead prosecutor in Rosemond’s case. Kaminsky has used his status as the lead prosecutor to promote his campaign, benefitting from the high profile media attention generated by Rosemond’s prosecution. According to someone who was interviewed by Kaminksy during the investigation, “Todd Kaminsky made it very clear that every witness had to implicate Jimmy Rosemond.”

Rosemond has also filed a complaint against Todd Kaminsky with the U.S. Justice Department Office of Professional Responsibility, citing the actions he took with respect lead prosecution witness Henry Butler and his wife Leah Daniels-Butler.

Rosemond became a target of federal prosecutors because of his entertainment business and connections to high profile names in the hip hop industry who the government wanted Rosemond to turn in. He refused. Although he was never found with any money or drugs in his possession, nor was any evidence produced during a two-year wire tap on his phones and in his office, the government was intent on naming Rosemond as a drug kingpin. That designation ensured a high profile prosecution and a significantly long prison sentence. The only evidence against Rosemond was circumstantial, supplied by prosecution witnesses all of whom were offered deals, like Butler, in return for their testimony.

James Rosemond said, “The government and its prosecutor, now state senate candidate, Todd Kaminsky, used underhanded and unethical methods against me to secure my guilty verdict. I have lost everything. All the money I made as a legitimate music industry businessman, and now my freedom. I feel that I was prosecuted to the extent to which I was, in large measure, because of my role in the Hip Hop industry and the ability of the government to gain so much notoriety on my case.”

“Kaminsky and the government have taken my life, and now he is using it to run for senate. I guess ambition has no boundaries.”

In art imitating life, Henry Butler, the chief prosecution witness is the brother-in –law of Lee Daniels, the director and co-creator of the hit television series, Empire, which recently returned for its second season on FOX Television. Lee Daniels’ sister Leah Daniels-Butler and her husband Henry Butler were first targeted in narcotics investigations, arrested and, after cooperating with federal authorities by fingering Rosemond, had their sentences reduced based upon their cooperation. Although Leah Daniels -Butler was actually found with two guns, loaded magazines and drugs, she was sentenced to two years probation and ordered to perform 250 hours of community service. Butler served less than 4 years in prison. He is now out and, according to media reports, promoting his brother-in-law’s hit television show.

According to the NY Daily News report on Butler’s arrest, “Locked up in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, Butler soon opted to cooperate with federal investigators. After a series of debriefing sessions during which he detailed his cocaine business and identified suppliers and customers, Butler struck a plea agreement requiring him to testify against Rosemond. Along with the prospect of a reduced sentence, Butler’s cooperation also benefitted his wife. Instead of pursuing felony charges against Daniels-Butler, federal prosecutors allowed her to plead guilty to a misdemeanor drug possession charge. When agents raided the couple’s California home they found hundreds of Ecstasy pills, which Daniels-Butler said her husband “either used for his own recreational use or to promote a nightclub with which he was affiliated.”

In Rosemond’s request for a new trial, he has also asked the court to set aside his conviction and grant him a new trial based upon the failure of the jury system, and his sixth Amendment right to a trial by an impartial jury. Rosemond alleges that two jurors in his case were overheard discussing the oft-reported story in the media that James Rosemond was somehow involved in the shooting of Tupac Shakur, some years prior to his eventual murder. The story tying Rosemond to the shooting of Tupac has been debunked many times. Nevertheless, it is alleged that at least two jurors made remarks concerning the shooting of Tupac that were prejudicial to Rosemond’s case.

Filmmaker Don Sikorski, in producing a documentary series entitled Unjust Justice: The Jimmy Rosemond Tapes, has uncovered evidence of the prosecution’s questionable ethics, and contradicts the prosecution’s contention that Rosemond was a drug kingpin. The first piece in particular looks at the allegations that Rosemond was involved in the Tupac Shakur robbery. Sikorski’s film has never before seen interviews with many of those there that evening, raising serious questions about Rosemond’s involvement.

“In examining the case of James Rosemond, it became apparent that the government has overreached in charging him with the Kingpin Statute. Under the guidelines of the charge, Rosemond was not a kingpin. The government, through coercion of informants and a well-drafted narrative that put Rosemond at the head of the snake was circumstantial at best. I have definitive proof that disputes the story of the United States Attorney and audio interviews that show Todd Kaminsky manipulated every criminal associate around Rosemond to fit his ultimate goal of prosecuting the “big catch.”